Affordances and Challenges of Telecollaboration for Pre-service Teachers

Abstract

Telecollaboration has received growing interest in second language teacher education, due to the link between knowledge and practice in telecollaboration. The current research examined affordances and challenges of telecollaboration in teacher education by connecting American pre-service teachers to Korean pre-service teachers. The data for this paper focused on pre-and post-questionnaires, reflective journals, blog posts, and interviews from nineteen American pre-service teachers. This study provides an empirical account of how pre-service teachers benefit from interacting with international partners for improving ICC, teaching skills, and digital literacy skills. The study also presents some challenges of implementing telecollaboration. By presenting the affordances and challenges of telecollaboration in a teacher training program, the study provides implications for educators about how to better assist preservice teachers while using telecollaboration.